Congress Passes TAKE IT DOWN Act Despite Major Flaws
Today the U.S. House of Representatives passed the TAKE IT DOWN Act, giving the powerful a dangerous new route to manipulate platforms into removing lawful speech that they simply don't like. President Trump himself has said that he would use the law to censor his critics. The bill passed the Senate in February, and it now heads to the president's desk.
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/04/congress-passes-take-it-down-act-despite-major-flawsOpen linkView original on lemmy.dbzer0.com439
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OK so this is meant for revenge porn / stolen photos... but it's written so broadly that it will affect basically any online speech. Great.
it passed. it fucking passed. i don't think people realize what they're about to use this for (or at least they don't fully realize the implications).
And a helluva a lot of Dems voted for it like lemmings…
They all did along with all but two Republicans. Funny how they have no problem working together on stuff like this, but when it comes to anything that helps the American people suddenly there's a ton of manufactured controversy as if we were watching a scripted pro wrestling match.
Senate:
Unanimous Support
House:
207 Republicans and 202 Democrats voted Yea
2 Republicans voted No, 0 Democrats
11 from both parties abstained
WTF happened to resisting Trump's fascist agenda? This is blatant controlled opposition
Trump himself told the whole nation in his address that he plans to abuse it.
100% it was meant for the latter not the former
Call it what it is: a censorship law. Apparently the climate of fear that makes people self-censor wasn’t enough.
Watch for a LOT of ‘extreme left’ opinions get taken down and their authors imprisoned.
It won't stop with journalists and authors. They'll be looking in Facebook posts, Reddit comments, Twitter threads, Instagram, etc. And random citizens are going to start disappearing.
They'll want people to know it can happen to anyone, not just the most visible or high profile critics.
And darlen AOC so called progressive voted for this shit.
Politicians are still too afraid of optics, they don't want to be on record as voting against taking down revenge porn. Too many of these bills are written with a good-sounding premise but the details are where they get you.
Yet they are happy to hand the criminal who is actively shooting people another loaded weapon because "optics".
They are the kind of people that say you should stay with a partner that rapes and abuses you because it might make family gatherings weird if you complain.
Fuck those people.
Optics are people's reality. Everyone lives in their own.
As did Bernie.
Bernie is in the Senate not the House of Representatives where AOC serves. How did Bernie vote for this?
The Senate voted for it unanimously in February.
Ahhh. That’s a bummer :(
Any chance courts can stop this bill for being unconstitutional.
Can, probably yes, will, probably no
Since it's not specifically partisan there's a good chance scotus will actually follow the law on this one.
The NSA mass surveillance program that Snowden blew the whistle on was found unconstitutional during Obama II. THAT SAME AFTERNOON, the Republican Congress and Senate passed the (I shit you not, this is what this MF is named) USA FREEDOM ACT that basically re-instantiated the program and Obama signed it straightaway. Turns out, they were able to get shit done quick and in a hurry when the shit was fascism.
AIPAC is driving this. Thats why they got the voting numbers that they did.
Another step closer to achieving his Nazi wet dream.
While this is bullshit, we should be able to weaponize it right back at them - any lies the administration spews (which let’s face it, that’s everything) needs to be reported relentlessly.
Make them feel it!
Reported to who? The people telling the lies?
The article mentioned requiring a reporting mechanism which must be resolved within 48 hours. Because of the impracticality of the timeframe it went on to assume that anything reported would just be removed.
Yeah that will only be true for the rich and powerful. Ever go to the police as a poor for stalking?
The same way that Facebook can say "no" when you ask them to stop training AI on your data they will just send it to an automated not that will find no issue and deny the takedown but for those that pay I'm sure it will be very effective.
gulf of america?
This reminds me of the DNC super donor Ed Buck who would lure in gay black men and kill them by injecting meth into them while raping them.
He managed to do it for years and wasn't until one of the victims survived to be able talk about it that he was sentenced as with every previous body it was said it was a private issue and a sad loss of a friend.
Photos managed to get shared of his racist, rape, death den helping sway the public.
Ed Buck would have loved this bill and its ability to actively scrub his image further.
If it feels like monsters would like something I don't want it.
Republicans pass legislation through the two houses of Congress they entirely control, a Republican president signs it.
You: "The Democrats pushed this through."
It passed 409-2 and the 2 no votes were Republican.
Senate was unanimous.
Ok so 2 people out of 535 in Republican-controlled Congress voted against it, how is it accurate to say "Democrats pushed it through"?
Maybe they should trying being the OPPOSITION PARTY for once in their miserable careers.
I see how you got confused, let's try rephrasing it to "passed with unanimous democratic support".
The house bill was sponsored by a Pennsylvania Democrat and a Florida Republican.
Amy Klobuchar and Ted Cruz introduced the Senate version.
It's bipartisan and criticism is levelled at the opposition for doing bipartisanship: the chronic problematic condition the Democrats put themselves into while in the minority.
In what world is 2 votes against 400 making any noise? That is 0.5%, democrats surely make up far more than that.
So a majority of democrats voted for this.
They pushed it through.
They're still saying that, however now it means don't be critical of do nothing democrats. Really thinking .world is redditizing unfortunately
My point is that it's very odd to focus on the Democrats specifically when Republicans brought the bills up for a vote, and Republicans also basically unanimously voted for it...more Republicans voted for it than Democrats, and a Republican president is signing the bill.
Republicans pushed it through, Democrats voted for it also. You are allowed to criticize either party for voting for it, but you are being inaccurate if you are saying the Democrats are disproportionately responsible for passage, as the term "pushed it through" means.
"Republican controlled" doesn't mean they're all Republican. It means they have a majority. 535 votes in favor essentially means unanimous support.
https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/119-2025/h104
Two republicans voted no. Every Dem who voted, voted yes.
We may not be able to say they stopped it, but I think it's reasonable to want them to try to.
rumor has it that AOC voted for this
Not a rumor, only 2 house members voted against (both republican).
mfw we can pass a bipartisan spy law no problem but a bipartisan daylight savings law is still too hard.
To be fair, DST is a more complicated issue. Everyone wants to end it, but there's disagreement on how to do it.
One side wants to not be missing an hour of sleep half the year and wants to go to standard time only.
The other side is psychopaths. We had a Spring Forward. I'm owed a Fall Back. If they try to take that away from me, I'll take up arms.
They all did, it was 409 vs 2, with 22 not voting:
https://clerk.house.gov/evs/2025/roll104.xml
And ironically the only two Nays came from Republicans.
She did. She ‘objected to some of the wording’ but jumped in line like a good little puppet.
Her and Bernie won't acknowledge palestinian defenders in their rallies. Puppets to the bone like all the others, just another form of controlled opposition.
censorship is bipartisan, they just want to censor different things
She's part of the problem.
We like to believe she isn't, but she's a proud consumer just like the rest of them.
She will never fight back against the culture of consumption until it becomes cool to do so.
I can eat for literal days, having several pounds of meat, for $15. Meanwhile she feels justified in defending spending $15 on avocado toast and her useful idiots support her because they're part of the problem, too.
All democrats become conservatives when their consumerism is threatened.
I guess. I have seen her giggle about the need of cheap slave labor.
She's just another capitalist who want her own comfort more than she wants what's best for others.
Kompromat
Anyone else hear thunderous applause?
Why the fuck did all the democrats vote Yes for this
Fascism is an integration of government and corporations. Democrats are officially just the other side of the coin after this. 100% one party in the country. The longer any politician fights under the banner of Republican or Democrat the longer they want this system to continue.
Because they'd like to use it too.
I'm so done with them. Primary all of them.
Because the mainstream democrats (the corpocentrists, mostly) believe that the tools of fascism and oppression are perfectly fine to keep around as long as they're wielded by enlightened leadership. All you have to do is simply never lose an election ever. Nbd. Why do they want to keep the tools of fascism around? Uh... (Hurriedly stuffing cash in pockets) Safety, terrorists or child molesters or something, look don't worry about it.
I think because the sentiment of the bill is good.
The problem is on the required action and the broad definition of what a "covered platform" is.
So just assume they voted yes since only 2 republicans voted against including the Democrats
My guess is they never read any of it, but heard the Democrats were voting "yes" so they voted "no" purely for opposition.
There's different factions in the republicans just like there are different factions in the democrats (though I'd argue that the democrats are somewhat more of a monolith and seem to really actively hate deviation from the party line). At a blind guess, I'd wager that Rand Paul voted no, since he's one of the more libertarian leaning legislators. Though, I'd be unsurprised if he voted yes. For every good take, Rand has a dozen real stinkers, but much like a broken clock, he does get it right once in a while and isn't afraid to break from the party on stuff.
“Flood the zone” benefits both parties when it comes to power grab shit like this. This barely made headlines until it was already passed and it’s too late.
Wait, US Congress still exists? Certainly wouldn't know it based on how the nation has been governed for the past 4 months.
They exist for the important work of censoring critics.
Good news, now we can report all those christians online that won't shut the fuck up!!
American decline is happening at a much faster pace than I anticipated.
If you don't own a gun, now is the time.
I want off this ride
The ride don't stop until you make it stop.
Oligarchs gonna oligarch.
Isn’t this what the DMCA is for?
Yeah but the DMCA was vaguely reasonable. This is meant to be weaponized.
No it wasn't. It too was MEANT to be weaponized from day one. The difference is that almost all of the people in control of both parties and all mainstream media were in favor, so it got a false veneer of reasonability in coverage.
The DMCA is just as bad as SOPA and PIPA, which was always the intent from the powerful industry groups lobbying for all three bills and the politicians they own.
Meant to be or not, it’s still weaponized.
I think you mean the communications decency act? Most of that has been found to be unconstitutional as will likely be the fate of this bill...
That's a possibility, but laws like this cut in many directions.
Remember, America, it's through your inaction that these changes are possible. Really, they should be thanking you for standing aside and letting them remodel the whole government.
I'm fighting back in the ways I can.
Namely by reducing my contribution to the eternal consumption engine while convincing others to do the same so our rulers have fewer resources to use against us.
America needs a reset or to be splintered. The one we have is straight up evil.
I am confused. The title say congress passed the bill while the article says the house is the one that passed it (so congress should be next).
Which is it?
Congress is the combination of the House of Representatives and the Senate. America has a bicameral legislature. (Congress=House of Reps + Senate)
Because this passed the Senate in Feb and the House recently it is correct to say that this bill has passed Congress.
The bill has passed both the Senate and House so now the president just has to sign it.
Which he would gladly do. Very sad
Literally the most basic of basic civics... Depressing.
Congress is our legislators. Our Congress is "bicameral". It is broken down into two houses: the Senate (upper house of Congress), and the House of Representatives (lower house of Congress).
People often use "Congress" as a shorthand for the House of Representatives (but only when they also mention the Senate to make the distinction. Or at least some sort of context making it clear they mean the House).
However, technically, "Congress" includes both houses.
Nobody refers to the Senate alone as "Congress," and if they do, they're doing it wrong and likely causing all sorts of confusion.
I’m confused isn’t this just for images tho?
Visual medium and anything that can cause social distress or economic impact.
That's the basic wording of the bill which allows for a lot of wiggle room but true that we can still write mean things, but that was always subject to libel and then your photo evidence to go with your article can be censored.